Ladytron in Portland

Performers:

Ladytron

Ladytron have announced their first album since 2011 and a new single, both exclusively through Pledgemusic.Opening single "The Animals" is a taste that comescomplete with a remix by electronic pioneer Vince Clarke, and a video clip filmed in the sprawling megalopolis of So Paulo. The track is unmistakably Ladytron, yet hints at new horizons to come. "The Animals was the first new song we had, and with it we went almost immediately into the studio with Jim Abbiss, who has worked with us previously on Destroy... and the Witching Hour album," says vocalist Helen Marnie "He's the producer who has really understood us the most."The new chapter for Ladytron follows a hiatus which saw half the group move across hemispheres, and all experiment with solo projects and new collaborations, after five albums and a succession of world tours over the previous ten-year period.Originating in Liverpool, the band, made up of Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt, Mira Aroyo and Reuben Wu earned that decade of acclaim by relentlessly pushing boundaries, carving out new sonic and conceptual space and refusing to abide by formula or trend.At the beginning they were known for shows in unconventional spaces, such as disused banks and bowling alleys, and placed emphasis on countries and cities other than their own. Thus the group's international recognition quickly grew -- playing in places where few artists went at that time, such as China in 2004 and Colombia in 2006. Along the way they twice took their primitive electronics to California's Coachella Festival, on relentless tours across Europe, Asia, North and South America, and were invited to perform with artists such as Bjork, Nine Inch Nails, and for Brian Eno at the Sydney Opera House. Eno remarked in an interview, "Ladytron are, for me, the best of English pop music. They're the kind of band that really only appears in England, with this funny mixture of eccentric art-school dicking around and dressing up, with a full awareness of what's happening everywhere musically, which is kind of knitted together and woven into something quite new."